Well into the year by now, but the nice disconnect of the holidays has kept me away from screens and RPG games. A good number of light boardgames (King of Tokyo, Azul, Splendor, etc) were enjoyed these days with the few close family members I was able to see.
What a bizarre year this has been. I'm extremely fortunate on how good it was for me personally, but also professionally stable. And for that I'm thankful.
Gaming
This year I enjoyed some games, but the circumstances in the world have also kept others from happening:
- I continue to play a whispers bard Oswald Lach in a 5e campaign, Tomb of Annihilation. We should finish the campaign within the next months, I reckon.
- It saw my Knave Stonehell play-by-post tables fizzle after some slow exploration of the first levels.
- Played a couple session in IdleDoodler's Barrowmaze open table. Good fun, and still going strong. The time just doesn't fit my schedule too well.
- The Calaveras campaign picked up with some old friends new to gaming. Knave at first, we've moved to Macchiato Monsters.
- We had a stint at the Stygian Library with Electric Bastionland characters and rules.
- Tried Microscope for one sitting, and I definitely want to toy more with it, and Kingdom.
- Played a bit (more) of Magical Murder Mansion with Macchiato Monsters, and the guys really want to continue playing that.
- Played a solo session of Ironsworn and enjoyed the experience. Might blog about it in the future.
The Blog
31 articles published. Some with useful ideas. But more importantly a repository of them for my future reference and use. And I like the "dead" nature of blogging. Seems archaic and ancient, even in the OSR circles, where Twitter and Discord seem more predominant. Here are my four posts of 2020 I myself liked best:
The Future, 2021
First, about TTRPG purchases. Seeing how much I play and use, I will stop buying products and backing Kickstarters. Doing so at a much lower pace. This has been in my head much before Grognardia's piece, which echoes my thoughts like a megaphone. In my future, less is more. Might even consider giving some physical stuff away, or trying to sell it.
Second, about my gaming. The 5e game will wrap up in a few months. The Calaveras campaign will continue, but most likely at a tortoise pace even if I try to revitalize it. I will try to join or launch an open table to have a weekly game in the OSR space, beer & pretzels style. Perhaps OSE and Stonehell, but who knows. I'm also eagerly eyeing Mothership, but need the right group for me to take a stab at it. Solo Ironsworn will continue as well.
Third, the blog. The stream of thought dumping in this space will continue. At what pace, no idea, 31 posts a year seems like a lot. I will keep my focus on TTRPGs, might do a stint into other media I enjoy. Blogger will be nuked by Google, but hopefully not in 2021.
Anyhow, as we say around here, good slip to 21!
I'm thankful for my 2020 experience too, and perhaps (not that I have thought it before now) Blogger/blogspot is a dead platform. But we persist. And when I play Mothership in 2021, or 2022, I'll be blogging about it :)
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, is there any reason you went away from Knave++? That is a very intriguing system to me.
ReplyDeleteI read that your players wanted to move past the simplicity of "basic" Knave in your Calaveras Campaign. That is my fear with my current game, even though my players are brand new to the hobby and never played before. I find most modern players yearning for MORE.
Couple of questions because I love Knave++ so much:
- What brought you back to the OG of basic B/X (OSE)?
- How do you compare the gameplay of your Knave++ to OSE?
- Do you feel like Knave++ offers more character options than OSE?
- Do you have a preference if any?
Knave++ is really not much more than a collection of house rules I scavenged from other games and blogs. My sensibilities have moved away from it, and if I were to hack Knave again, I would do it very differently.
DeleteWhen the Calaveras wanted MORE out of "basic" Knave, I presented 3 choices: Knave++, OSE, Macchiato Monsters. Popular demand settled on the third option. That's my bad for being democratic ;) But we are very happy with Macchiato!
Going into your questions:
- I'm running an open table of Stonehell using OSE. In my mind megadungeon play is better serviced by classic B/X, as this dungeon assumes a more compatible retroclone.
- In Knave++ I still pulled procedures from OSE. I like the elegance of encumbrance in Knave++, instead of counting coins, or just relying on armor. Saves tied to the 6 stats is more intuitive. OSE has all procedures you need for dungeoneering backed in (Listen, Open Doors, etc)
- Yes, there are more character options and customization SPELLED OUT thanks to Knacks in Knave++ than OSE. But I wouldn't do it this way now, since I think Knave is better serviced by having items only, so I would remove knacks. I would fold powers/knacks into magic items, and implement the "every stat is a slot" idea that you can see on the article in my sidebar. I also think GLOG and Shadow of the Demon Lord are better options for the modern player coming from 5e or videogames that wants tons of powers and little bits when leveling up.
- I withhold judgement :) Depends on the group, and the kind of game you're going for. OSE is a big name, has SRD support and a lot of 3rd party products. I'm working on a second Knave hack, with the intention of moving the Calaveras from Macchiato to it. This is just because I'm a hacking junkie!